It does help that the target device has the option not to defend - so if you're setting a data bomb to secure something you own, you can have it not defend.

I don't know if that's true. Because it would make a data bomb even more ridiculously dangerous than it already is. I guess the hits are capped by sleaze, but if it was on a corporate host at rating 12, then you'd have to defuse it against 24 dice...and I don't think anyone can do that... I guess at that point you'd have to rely on social engineering to steal the passcode for it.

Then you get into the issue I pointed out: you can data bomb the file on a DR1 commlink and then move it to a DR12 host, and I presume keep the data bomb intact. If it's supposed to be a limiter, it shouldn't be trivially avoidable.

See. that's the piece I was missing. Is that stated as a general rule anywhere? A lot of Matrix actions seem to list two different scenarios: If you own the device and if you don't.

Why isn't the Sr5 guy disabling the Data Bomb?
Why isn't the Sr5 guy actually looking for the potential Data Bomb, since the initial 2 hits (that you posit) from matrix perception is not likely enough to find the hidden file and the data bomb on it from outside the system itself.
And let's not forget that the Matrix Perception Test you are so proud of only tells you that there are hidden icons, it does not tell you which one of those icons you need to hack. If the area has 16 Icons running Silent, which one do you hack? Sounds like Matrix Perception tests on all of them to be sure. Hope there are not a lot of them.

See, you are making a LOT of assumptions here. Having played a Hacker in SR4A for a lot of years, I have NEVER had to make 14 rolls to hit a Rating 5/6 Device to find a single piece of information. Of course, I generally look for more than a single piece of information when the character is about his business, and he aims to gain control of more things than said single piece of information, and I STILL don't roll the dice as many times as you seem to think it should require.

It is far easier to hack in SR4A than you seem to think it is. I think that may be because we seem to have very different ideas on what is useful to hack and what is not. I don't tend to willy-nilly hack the common man... he has nothing that I care about, and even if he did, who cares about a small end comlink. Hell, even the low-end businesses have nothing I care about for the most part, unless I am using their devices for more clandestine work, and they are a convenient (if unknowing) asset.

As some have mentioned, it looks to me like the number of rolls is about the same (though SR5 may be more immersive). Where SR5 may have a step up is the presentation of the actual layers of the Matrix, which will become far more complex when the Matrix Book comes out, I can guarantee you. I would be willing to bet there will be rules in the books that mimic what you found in Unwired. I fully expect to have nested Hosts, and other such things make their re-appearance.

In the end, though, my real dislike of SR5's Matrix is the ham-handed way that wireless and wireless bonuses were implemented. Total instantaneous turn off.